126 MUD. 



sea, the dwindling Nile never receives a single tributary, 

 a single drop of fresh water. For more than fifteen 

 hundred miles the ever-lessening river rolls on between 

 bare desert hills and spreads fertility over the deep valley 

 in their midst just as far as its own mud sheet can 

 cover the barren rocky bottom, and no farther. For the 

 most part the line of demarcation between the grey bare 

 desert and the cultivable plain is as clear and as well- 

 defined as the margin of sea and land : you can stand 

 with one foot on the barren rock and one on the green 

 soil of the tilled and irrigated mud-land. For the water 

 rises up to a certain level, and to that level accordingly 

 it distributes both mud and moisture : above it comes 

 the arid rock, as destitute of life, as dead and bare and 

 lonely as the centre of Sahara. In and out, in waving 

 line, up to the base of the hills, cultivation and greenery 

 follow, with absolute accuracy, the line of highest flood- 

 level; beyond it the hot rock stretches dreary and 

 desolate. Here and there islands of sandstone stand 

 out above the green sea of doura or cotton; here and 

 there a bay of fertility runs away up some lateral valley, 

 following the course of the mud ; but one inch above the 

 inundation-mark vegetation and life stop short all at 

 once with absolute abruptness. In Egypt, then, more 

 than anywhere else, one sees with one's own eyes that 

 mud and moisture are the very conditions of mundane 

 fertility. 



Beyond Cairo, as one descends seaward, the mud 

 begins to open out fan-wise and form a delta. The narrow 

 mountain ranges no longer hem it in. It has room to 

 expand and spread itself freely over the surrounding 



